Systems and methods for automatic program recommendations based on user interactions

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems are provided for generating automatic program recommendations based on user interactions. In some embodiment, control circuitry processes verbal data received during an interaction between a user of a user device and a person with whom the user is interacting. The control circuitry analyzes the verbal data to automatically identify a media asset referred to during the interaction by at least one of the user and the person with whom the user is interacting. The control circuitry adds the identified media asset to a list of media assets associated with the user of the user device. The list of media assets is transmitted to a second user device of the user.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/078,639, filed Mar. 23, 2016, now allowed, which is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/716,602, filed May 19, 2015, nowU.S. Pat. No. 9,298,810, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/626,332, filed Sep. 25, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No.9,092,415, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in theirentireties.

BACKGROUND

Modern consumers often carry one or more personal electronic devices,such as mobile phones, smart phones, tablet computers, etc., with themat all times. Typical personal electronic devices have a networkconnection to a cell phone network or the Internet, for example, so thatusers can communicate with other users. Recently, personal electronicdevices have also begun to incorporate voice recognition technology takespoken commands from their users and perform actions based on thecommands and image recognition technology to identify images captured bythe devices.

As users go throughout their day, they often are told about mediacontent they may be interested such as television programs, videos,movies, songs and albums. Such discussions may occur in conversationsover network using the personal electronic device or in an in-personconversation in close proximity to a user's personal electronic device.At present, users have to manually create reminders or notes to recallthese recommendations. However, creating reminders or notes is timeconsuming and often inconvenient, causing to users to forgo the effortand instead quickly forget the recommendations. In addition, multipledifferent people may recommend a particular media asset to a userwithout the user noticing that multiple people have endorsed it.

SUMMARY

In order to make automatic recommendations to a user based on hisinteractions with other people, methods and systems are provided hereinfor recommending a media asset based on a monitored interaction. Byautomating the steps of identifying a media asset referred to during auser's interaction with another person adding the identified media assetto a list of media assets associated with the user, a user can avoidmissing out on media assets recommended to him by his friends andfamily.

Herein, control circuitry processes verbal data received during aninteraction between a user of a user device and a person with whom theuser is interacting. The control circuitry analyses the verbal data toautomatically identify a media asset referred to during the interactionby at least one of the user and the person with whom the user isinteracting. The control circuitry adds the identified media asset to alist of media assets associated with the user of the user device. Thelist of media assets is transmitted to a second user device of the user.

In some embodiments, adding the identified media asset to the list ofmedia assets comprises at least one of adding the identified media assetto a list or queue of media assets to be transmitted to the user, addingthe identified media asset to a list of media assets recommended to theuser, creating a bookmark to the identified media asset, creating a linkto the identified media asset, and scheduling a recording of theidentified media asset on a device associated with the user.

In some embodiments, a level of interest in the identified media assetof at least one of the user and the person with whom the user isinteracting is determined based on the analysis of the verbal data. Theidentified media asset may be added to a list of media assets associatedwith the user in response to the level of interest in the identifiedmedia asset being above an upper predetermined threshold level. Theidentified media asset may not be added to a list of media assetsassociated with the user in response to the level of interest theidentified media asset being below a lower predetermined thresholdlevel. In some embodiments, an aggregate level of interest in theidentified media asset is calculated based on the levels of interest ofat least two of the user and one or more people with whom the user hasinteracted.

In some embodiments, the number of times that the media asset wasidentified within the data related to the interaction is monitored andcompared to a predetermined threshold number. In response to the numberof times the media asset was identified exceeding the predeterminedthreshold, the identified media asset is added to the list of mediaassets associated with the user.

In some embodiments, the number of interactions in which the media assetwas identified is monitored and compared to a predetermined thresholdnumber. In response to the number of interactions in which the mediaasset was identified exceeding the predetermined threshold, theidentified media asset is added to the list of media assets associatedwith the user.

In some embodiments, the media asset is added to the list of mediaassets associated with the user based on the identity of the person withwhom the user is interacting. In some embodiments, additional dataidentifying at least one interest of the person with whom the user isinteracting is accessed. The at least one identified interest of theperson with whom the user is interacting is compared to at least oneinterest of the user of the user device. Based on the results of thiscomparison, a level of interest similarity between the user and theperson with whom the user is interacting is determined. The identifiedmedia asset is added to the list of media assets associated with theuser based on the level of interest similarity.

In some embodiments, the text data is analyzed to identify a media assetinterest level of the user of the user device. The identified mediaasset is added to the list of media assets associated with the userbased on the media asset interest level of the user.

In some embodiments, a list of candidate media assets is determinedbased on information from a profile associated with at least one of theuser and the person with whom the user is interacting. From thedetermined list of candidate media assets, a media asset that wasreferred to during the interaction by at least one of the user and theperson with whom the user is interacting may be automaticallyidentified.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The above and either objects and advantages or the invention will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative display screen that may be used to providemedia guidance application listings and other media guidance informationin accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 shows another illustrative display screen that may be used toprovide media guidance application listings in accordance with anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative interact we media system inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an illustrative system for recommending amedia asset to a user based on an interaction between the user andanother user over a communications network in accordance with anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an illustrative system for recommending amedia asset to a user based on a conversation between the user andanother person recorded by a user device in accordance with anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an illustrative system showing data flowfor generating a media asset recommendation for a user based on aninteraction between the user and another user over a communicationsnetwork in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an illustrative system showing data flowfor generating a media asset recommendation for a user based on aconversation between the user and another person recorded by a userdevice in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 9 is an illustrative display screen showing selectable automatedrecommendation setup options providing actions to take when recommendinga program in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 10 is an illustrative display screen showing a selectable automatedrecommendation setup option for providing a recommendation threshold inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 11 is an illustrative display screen showing a selectable automatedrecommendation setup option for providing preferred contacts for makingrecommendations in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 12 is an illustrative display screen showing a selectable automatedrecommendation setup option for providing contacts to ignore when makingrecommendations in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 13 is an illustrative display screen showing an automatedrecommendation in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 14 is an illustrative display screen showing a second automatedrecommendation in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 15 shows an illustrative process for automatically generating amedia asset recommendation based on a user's interaction in accordancewith an embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 16 shows an illustrative process for automatically generating amedia asset recommendation based on a user's interaction and varioususer input and interest data in accordance with am embodiment of theinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. In application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interlace screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, advertisements, chat sessions, socialmedia, applications, games, and/or any other media of multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred, to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfading camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, of forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase, “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content, such as media listings, media availability,media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcast channels,titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parental controlratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information, actorinformation, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos, etc.),media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D, etc.),advertisement information (e.g., text, images, media clips, etc.),on-demand information, blogs, director names, episode names, and anyother type of guidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate amongand locate desired content selections. “Media guidance data” or“guidance data” may also include athletic teams or athletes, stadiumnames, names of hosts, names of commentators, place names, store names,restaurants, character names, occupations, artists, band names, albumtitles, song titles, and other words or phrases that could be used toidentify content.

FIGS. 1-2 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 1-2 and 9-14 maybe implemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. Whilethe displays of FIGS. 1-2 and 9-14 are illustrated as full screendisplays, they may also be fully or partially overlaid ever contentbeing displayed. A user may indicate a desire to access contentinformation by selecting a selectable option provided in a displayscreen (e.g., a menu option, a listings option, an icon, a hyperlink,etc.) or pressing a dedicated button (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remotecontrol or other user input interface or device. In response to theuser's indication, the media guidance application may provide a displayscreen with media guidance data organized in one of several ways, suchas by time and channel in a grid, by time, by channel, by source, bycontent type, by category (e.g., movies, sports, news, children, orother categories of programming), or other predefined, user-defined, orother organization criteria. The organization of the media guidance datais determined by guidance application data. As referred to herein, thephrase, “guidance application data” should be understood to mean dataused in operating the guidance application, such as program information,guidance application settings, user preferences, or user profileinformation.

FIG. 1 shows illustrative grid program listings display 100 arranged bytime and channel that also enables access to different types of contentin a single display. Display 100 may include grid 102 with: (1) a columnof channel/content type identifiers 104, where each channel/content typeidentifier (which is a cell in the column) identifies a differentchannel or content type available; and (2) a row of time identifiers106, where each time identifier (which is a cell in the row) identifiesa time block of programming. Grid 102 also includes cells of programlistings, such as program listing 108, where each listing provides thetitle of the program provided on the listing's associated channel andtime. With a user input device, a user can select program listings bymoving highlight region 110. Information relating to the program listingselected by highlight region 110 may be provided in program informationregion 112. Region 112 may include, for example, the program title, theprogram description, the time the program is provided (if applicable),the channel the program is on (if applicable) the program's rating, andother desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and not provided according to a schedule). Non-linearprogramming may include content from different content sources includingon-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g., streaming media,downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content (e.g., content storedon any user equipment device described above or other storage device),or other time-independent content. On-demand content may include moviesor any other content provided by a particular content provider (e.g.,HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,”). HBOON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time Warner Company L.P. et al. andTHE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM are trademarks owned by the HomeBox Office, Inc. Internet content may include web events, such as a chatsession or Webcast, or content available on-demand as streaming contentor downloadable content through an Internet website or other internetaccess (e.g., FTP).

Grid 102 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 114, recorded content listing 116, andinternet content listing 118. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentfrom display 100 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings114, 116, and 118 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 102 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 102. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 120. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 120.)

Display 100 may also include video region 122, advertisement 124, andoptions region 126. Video region 122 may allow the user to view and/orpreview programs that are currently available, will be available, orwere available to the user. The content of video region 122 maycorrespond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed ingrid 102. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referredto as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and theirfunctionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat.No. 6,239,794, issued May 28, 2001, which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included inother media guidance application display screens of the embodimentsdescribed herein.

Advertisement 124 may provide an advertisement for content that,depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscriptionprogramming), is currently available for viewing, will be available forviewing in the future, or may never become available for viewing, andmay correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of the content listingsin grid 102. Advertisement 124 may also be for products or servicesrelated or unrelated to the content displayed in grid 102. Advertisement124 may be selectable and provide further information about content,provide information about a product or a service, enable purchasing ofcontent, a product, or a service, provide content relating to theadvertisement, etc. Advertisement 124 may be targeted based on a user'sprofile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of displayprovided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases.

While advertisement 124 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped,advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and locationin a guidance application display. For example, advertisement 124 may beprovided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid102. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. Inaddition, advertisements may be overlaid over content or a guidanceapplication display or embedded within a display. Advertisements mayalso include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other typesof content described above. Advertisements may be scored in a userequipment device having a guidance application, in a database connectedto the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming mediaservers), or on other storage means, or a combination of theselocations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application isdiscussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan. 17, 2003; Ward, IIIet al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004; and Schein et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will beappreciated that advertisements stay be included in other media guidanceapplication display screens of the embodiments described herein.

Options region 126 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 126 may be part of display 100 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 126 may concern features related to program listings in grid 102or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a userspreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customization and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail, mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 4. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and; Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 2. Video mosaic display 200 includes selectable options 202 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 200, television listings option 204 isselected, thus providing listings 206, 208, 210, and 212 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 200 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 208 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 214 and text portion 216.Media portion 214 and/or text portion 216 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 214 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 200 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 206 islarger than listings 208, 210, and 212), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Dec. 29, 2005,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 3 shown a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 300. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 4.User equipment device 300 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 302. I/O path 302 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 304, which includesprocessing circuitry 306 and storage 308. Control circuitry 304 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 302. I/O path 302 may connect control circuitry 304 (andspecifically processing circuitry 306) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 3 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry lot may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 306. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICS), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 308). Specifically, control circuitry 304 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 304 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 304 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 304 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modern, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 4). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablepeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 308 thatis part or control circuitry 304. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 308 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance information, described above, and guidance application data,described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used (e.g., to launch aboot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-based storage, describedin relation to FIG. 4, may be used to supplement storage 308 or insteadof storage 308.

Control circuitry 304 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 304 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 300. Circuitry 304 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., catch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 308 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 300, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 308.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 304 using user inputinterface 310. User input interface 310 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a microphone, remote control, mouse, trackball,keypad, keyboard, touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voicerecognition interface, or other user input interfaces. Display 312 maybe provided as a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements ofuser equipment device 300. Display 312 may be one or more of a monitor,a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD) for a mobile device, or anyother suitable equipment for displaying visual images. In someembodiments, display 312 may be HDTV-capable. In some embodiments,display 312 may be a 3D display, and the interactive media guidanceapplication and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. A videocard or graphics card may generate the output to the display 312. Thevideo card may offer various functions such as accelerated rendering of3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry304. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 304.Speakers 314 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 312 may be played throughspeakers 314. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers314.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone application whollyimplemented on user equipment device 300. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally, and data for use bythe application is downloaded on a periodic basis (e.g., from anout-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, or using another suitableapproach). In some embodiments, the media guidance application is aclient-server based application. Data for use by a thick or thin clientimplemented on user equipment device 300 is retrieved on-demand byissuing requests to a server remote to the user equipment device 300. Inone example of a client-server based guidance application, controlcircuitry 304 runs a web browser that interprets web pages provided by aremote server.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 304). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 304 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 304. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 304. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 300 of FIG. 3 can be implemented in system 400 ofFIG. 4 as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404,wireless user communications device 406, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 3 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or awireless user communications device 406. For example, user televisionequipment 402 may, like some user computer equipment 404, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 404 may, like some television equipment 402, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 404, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 406.

In system 400, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 4 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 402, user computer equipment 404, wireless user communicationsdevice 406) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the website www.allrovi.com on hispersonal computer at his office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 414.Namely, user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, andwireless user communications device 406 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 414 via communications paths 408, 410, and 412, respectively.Communications network 414 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 408, 410 and 412 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 412 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 4 it is awireless path and paths 408 and 410 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 408, 410, and 412, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 414.

System 400 includes content source 416 and media guidance data source418 coupled to communications network 414 via communication paths 420and 422, respectively. Paths 420 and 422 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 408, 410,and 412. Communications with the content source 416 and media guidancedata source 418 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 416 and 418 withuser equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 are shown as throughcommunications network 414, in some embodiments, sources 416 and 418 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 408, 410, and 412.

Content source 416 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 416 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 416 include cable sources, satelliteproviders, on-demand providers, Internet providers, over-the-top contentproviders, or other providers of content. Content source 416 may alsoinclude a remote media server used to store different types of content(including video content selected by a user), in a location remote fromany of the user equipment devices. Systems and methods for remotestorage of content, and providing remotely stored content to userequipment are discussed in greater detail in connection with Ellis etal., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, which is herebyincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 418 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance application datamay be provided to the user equipment devices using any suitableapproach. In some embodiments, the guidance application may be astand-alone interactive television program guide that receives programguide data via a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed).Program schedule data and other guidance data may be provided to theuser equipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-banddigital signal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any othersuitable data transmission technique. Program schedule data and othermedia guidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analogor digital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 418may be provided to users'equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 418 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 418 mayprovide user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 308, and executedby control circuitry 304 of a user equipment device 300. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and a server application resides on a remote server.For example, media guidance applications may be implemented partially asa client application on control circuitry 304 of user equipment device300 and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g.,media guidance data source 418) running on control circuitry of theremote server. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server(such as media guidance data source 418), the media guidance applicationmay instruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 418 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices402, 404, and 406 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 400 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 4.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 414.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/179,410, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different typed ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. Fox example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801,issued Oct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference hereinin its entirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 416 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 402 and user computer equipment 404may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 406 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 414. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 416 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 418. In addition, or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wirelessuser communications device 406. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as wall asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 404 or wireless usercommunications device 406 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 404. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 414. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an illustrative system 500 for recommendinga media asset to a user based on an interaction between the user andanother user over a communications network. System 500 includes threeuser devices 502, 504, and 506 each connected to communications network414 described above. Each of the user devices 502, 504, and 506 may beany of the user equipment devices 300 described above in relation toFIG. 3. For example, each of the user devices 502, 504, and 506 may beone of user equipment devices 402, 404, or 406 described above inrelation to FIG. 4. User devices 502, 504, and 506 may be differenttypes of user devices from each other. System 500 also includes a mediaasset recommendation system 508, which is connected to communicationsnetwork 414 as well.

User device 502 is a first user device used by a first user. User device504 is a first user device used by a second user. The first user andsecond user interact with each octet over communications network 414 viatheir respective user devices 502 and 504. For example, the users maycommunicate using email, an instant messaging service (e.g., GOOGLETALK, FACEBOOK chat, etc.), or a voice connection (e.g., a phone call orvoice over IP). In some embodiments, user device 504 is connected touser device 502 through a different network from communications network414 or through a non-networked connection.

The media asset recommendation system 508 receives data related to theinteraction and, based on the interaction, identifies a media asset torecommend to the first user. For example, if the media assetrecommendation system 508 determines from analyzing the interaction datathat the second user mentioned the television program “Parts andRecreation” and the first user had not seen the program, media assetrecommendation system 508 automatically generates a recommendation for“Parks and Recreation” to transmit to the first user. The recommendationmay be in the form of a link to or bookmark of the media asset or to awebpage containing information about the media asset (e.g., the creationof a bookmark to the “Parks and Recreation” page on video streamingwebsite (HULU), an instruction to schedule a recording of the mediaasset, or placing the media asset in a queue associated with the user(e.g., placing the first season of “Parks and Recreation” in the user'sNETFLIX queue).

The media asset recommendation can be transmitted to the first userdevice used by the first user 502 or the second user device used by thefirst user 506. For example, if the first user's first user device 502is a computer, tablet computer, cell phone, or smart phone, and thefirst user's second user device 506 is a television, media assetrecommendation system 508 may transmit an instruction to schedule arecording to television 506. Additionally or alternatively, the mediaasset recommendation system 508 could update a web page that isaccessible by the user with either first user device 502 or second userdevice 506. Thus, the recommendation could be transmitted to first userdevice 502, second user device 506, or both user devices when the useraccesses the web page. The media asset recommendation system 508 isdescribed in further detail in relation to FIG. 7.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an illustrative system 600 for recommendinga media asset to a user based on a conversation between the user andanother person recorded by a user device. The system 600 includes twouser devices 602 and 606 used by the first user; these may be similar tothe user devices 502 and 506 described above. Both of the user devices602 and 606 are connected to communications network 414 described above.The system 600 also includes a media asset recommendation system 608.

The first user device 602 includes a microphone 604 for detecting audio,and in particular, for detecting an interaction between the user 610 andanother person 612 such as the user's friend or a family member. Theinteraction detected by microphone 604 is sent via communicationsnetwork 414 to media asset recommendation system 608. Media assetrecommendation system 608 is configured to convert the audio signal intotext and then analyze the text of the interaction or analyze the audioof the interaction directly. After media asset recommendation system 608has analyzed the interaction to generate a recommendation, it recommendsmedia assets to the first user using the first user device 602 or thesecond user device 604 as described above. A more detailed system forrecommending a media asset based on a detected conversation is describedin relation to FIG. 8.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an illustrative system 700 showing detailsof the media asset recommendation system 508 from FIG. 5. FIG. 7 alsoshows data flow between various elements of the system 700 forgenerating a media asset recommendation for a user based on aninteraction between the user and another user over a communicationsnetwork.

As in system 500 of FIG. 5, system 700 includes a first user device 502that is interacting with a second user device 504 over communicationsnetwork 414. System 700 further includes a social network server 710connected to communications network 414. Media asset recommendationsystem 502 includes a messaging server 702, a text analytics module 704,a media asset database 706, a media asset recommendation module 708 anda user media profile 712.

Messaging server 702 supports messaging, emailing, or chatting overcommunications network 414. Messaging server 702 receives text sent byfirst user device 502 to second user device 504 and/or by second userdevice 504 to first user device 502. This text forms an interactionbetween a first user of first user device 502 and a second user ofsecond user device 504. Messaging server 702 sends the text of theinteraction to text analytics module 704. In some embodiments, messagingserver 702 is not part of media asset recommendation system 508, but maybe a third-party system from which media asset recommendation system 508receives the text of the interaction. Alternatively, first user device502 may send the text of the interaction to a media asset recommendationsystem 508 that does not include a messaging server 702; for example,the text of the interaction may be sent directly from first user device502 to text analytics module 704.

Text analytics module 704 analyzes the recalled text of the interactionto identify content mentioned or discussed in the interaction. Textanalytics module 704 is in communication with media asset database 706,which contains information related to content, such as any of theguidance data mentioned above and other words or phrases, orabbreviations or shorthand forms of words or phrases (e.g.,abbreviations or shorthand forms of any of the guidance data mentionedabove), that could be used to identify content. Text analytics module704 uses the data in media asset database 706 to determine a mediaasset, if any, mentioned or discussed in the interaction. In someembodiments, text analytics module 704 uses a computerized predictivemodel to predict the probability that the interaction relates tocontent. The computerized predictive model may have been trained on aset of training data, i.e., interactions for which the discussed mediaassets are known.

In some embodiments, text analytics module 704 may use fuzzy matchingtechniques to determine the similarity between an interaction andpossible content to which the interaction may relate. The fuzzy matchingmay compare words or phrases in the interaction to media guidance datastored in media asset database 706. In some embodiments, a fuzzymatching score is computed for each media asset in the media assetdatabase, and the media asset with the highest score is selected. Inorder to identify a media asset, text analytics module 704 may requirethe furry matching score for the media asset to exceed a predeterminedthreshold level. Fuzzy matching methods are described in further detailin Melnychenko, U.S. application Ser. No. 13/537,664, filed Jun. 29,2012.

Text analytics module 704 may use natural language processing techniquesto organize the text. Text analytics module 704 may filter stop words,such as articles and prepositions, from the text. In some embodiments,text analytics module 704 may only retain words of a certain part ofspeech, such as nouns and/or verbs. The remaining words may be reducedto their stem, based, or root form using any stemming algorithm.Additional processing of the text may include correcting spellingerrors, identifying synonyms or related words, performing conferenceresolution, and performing relationship extraction. Once the words havebeen processed, they may be counted and assigned word frequencies orratios.

The computerized predictive model of text analytics module 704 mentionedabove can be trained to classify an interaction as indicative of one ormore media assets based on, for example, the word count or wordfrequency. Because of the large amount of data and large amount ofpotential media assets, Bayesian classifiers, such as Naïve Bayesclassifiers and hierarchical Bayesian models, may be used. The text ofthe interaction can be viewed as a mixture of various topics, andlearning the topics, their word probabilities, topics associated witheach word, and topic mixtures of interactions is a problem of Bayesianinference. Suitable statistical classification methods include randomforests, random naïve Bayes, Averaged One-Dependence Estimators (AODE),Monte Carlo methods, concept mining methods, latent semantic indexing,k-nearest neighbor algorithms, or any other suitable multiclassclassifier. The selection of the classifier can depend on the size ofthe training data set, the desired amount of computation, and thedesired level of accuracy. When additional media assets are added tomedia asset database 706, the computerized predictive model may beupdated and/of subject to additional training.

If text analytics module 703 identifies a media asset in an interaction,text analytics module 704 sends an identifier for the discussed mediaasset to media asset recommendation module 708. Media assetrecommendation module 708 determines whether to recommend the mediaassent to the user. Media asset recommendation module 708 may consider,for example, the number of times the media asset was identified, thenumber of people who discussed or mentioned the media asset, the user'sinterest in the media asset, the identity of the contact, the contact'sattitude toward the media asset, or any other additional factor orcombination of factors when determining whether to recommend the mediaasset to the user.

For example, media asset recommendation module 708 may count the numberof times a particular media asset was mentioned in an interaction anddetermine whether to recommend the media asset based on whether itsnumber of mentions has passed a given threshold. Further, media assetrecommendation module 708 may count the number of interactions in whicha particular media asset was identified and determine whether torecommend the media asset based on whether its number of identificationshas passed a given threshold. Media asset recommendation module 708 mayadditionally or alternatively count the number of contacts who mentioneda particular media asset and determine whether to recommend the mediaasset based on whether the number of contacts has passed a giventhreshold.

In some embodiments, interactions with certain contacts are weightedmore heavily than interactions with other. For example, users can chooseto weight heavily media assets mentioned or recommended by closecontacts or contacts they know have similar taste in music, movies,television programs, etc. to them. Similarly, users can weight lightlyor ignore media assets mentioned by or recommended by more distantcontacts or contacts they know have different tastes from them. In someembodiments, media asset recommendation module 708 can monitor theuser's response to the recommendations and, based on the response,determine contacts whose recommendations the user is more responsive toand contacts whose recommendations the user is less interested in.

In addition to identifying a media asset, text analytics module 704 mayalso analyze the text to determine the user's interest or attitudetowards the identified media asset and/or the contact's interest orattitude towards the identified media asset. When analyzing interests orattitudes, analytics module 704 may focus on the text near the textrelating to the identified media asset. Text analytics module 704 mayuse this data to determine whether to send the media asset identifier tomedia asset recommendation module 708, or test analytics module 704 maysend data describing the user's and/or contact's attitude to media assetrecommendation module 708.

In the latter case, media asset recommendation module 708 can determinewhether to recommend a media asset based on the user's and/or contact'sattitude or level of interest. Media asset recommendation module 708 mayassign a level of interest and compare it to an upper threshold abovewhich the media asset is recommended or a lower threshold below whichthe media asset will not be recommended. For example, if the text fromthe user in the interaction indicates that the user is highly interestedin the media asset (e.g., “The Bachelorette sounds amazing! I'lldefinitely check it out this weekend.”), media asset recommendationmodule 708 may decide to recommend the media asset to the user.Alternatively, if the text from the user indicates that the user has anegative attitude about the media asset (e.g., “The Bachelorette soundsterrible! I can't believe you watch that garbage.”), medial assetrecommendation module 708 may decide not to recommend the media asset tothe user.

In some embodiments, media asset recommendation module 708 may allow auser's statements to outweigh or override a contact's recommendation.For example, if the contact speaks highly of the media asset (e.g., thecontact says “I can't come to your birthday party—The Bachelorette is onthen, and I simply cannot miss it.”), and the user responds negatively(e.g., “That is a lousy excuse! The Bachelorette sounds terrible”),media asset recommendation module 708 may refrain from recommending themedia asset. In other embodiments, media asset recommendation module 708may weigh the user's statements and the user's contact's statementsequally, or media asset recommendation module 708 may put greater weighton the user's contact's statements. In some embodiments, media assetrecommendation module 708 may determine an aggregate level of interestin a media asset that is based on the levels of interest of the userand/or one or more contacts towards the media asset. Media assetrecommendation module 708 may then determine whether to recommend themedia asset based on the aggregate level of interest. For example, mediaasset recommendation module 708 may compare the aggregate level ofinterest to one or more thresholds to determine whether to recommend themedia asset, not recommend the media asset, or await further informationbefore deciding whether to recommend the media asset.

In some embodiments, media asset recommendation module 708 determineswhether to recommend a media asset based on a level of interestsimilarity between the user and a contact who mentioned the media asset.Media asset recommendation module 708 may access data from a socialnetwork server 710 that stores information related to interests of theuser and the contact. Methods for identifying interests of a user of asocial network based on data stored on a social network server isdescribed in detail in Alcala, U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/453,506, filed Apr. 23, 2012.

Media asset recommendation module 708 compares the interests of the userto the interests of the contact to determine a level of similarity orcorrelation since users with more similar interests may be more likelyto enjoy similar media content. In some embodiments, media assetrecommendation module 708 may only consider interests in media orcertain types of media. Alternatively, media asset recommendation module708 may weight more heavily the level of similarity of interest of mediaassets than the level of similarity of other types of interests.Alternatively, media asset recommendation module 708 may weight moreheavily the level of similarity of interest in certain types of mediaassets. In some embodiments, social network server 710 may be part ofmedia asset recommendation system 502. In other embodiments, media assetrecommendation module 708 may receive interest data from another type ofsource or multiple sources.

In some embodiments, media asset recommendation module 708 may identifyone or more candidate media assets that are likely to be mentioned in aninteraction or that the user may likely be interested in. For example,media asset recommendation module 708 may determine one or morecandidate media assets based on interests in the user's and/or contact'ssocial network profile or information within a user profile, such asidentifiers of previously accessed media assets or demographicinformation.

In particular, media asset recommendation module 708 may identify, ascandidate media assets, media assets that the user and/or the contacthas indicated an interest in or has watched previously. Additionally oralternatively, media asset recommendation module 708 may identifycandidate media assets that are similar to the media assets in which theuser and/or contact has indicated an interest or has watched previously(e.g., the candidate media asset has a common actor, director, or genreto a previously viewed media asset). Additionally or alternatively,media asset recommendation module 708 may identify candidate mediaassets that are popular among the demographic of the user and/or thecontact. Media asset recommendation module 708 may sort or rank theidentified media assets based on, for example, how recently they havebeen accessed or how recently they have been made available.

In some embodiments, a list of candidate media assets is determined by adifferent module and accessed by media asset recommendation module 708.Once the candidate media assets have been determined by the other moduleor by media asset recommendation module 708, text analytics module 704may access the list of candidate media assets. Text analytics module 704may then access information related to the candidate media assets frommedia asset database 706 and determine a media asset mentioned ordiscussed in an interaction using only the information related to thecandidate media assets based on any of the techniques described above.In some embodiments, text analytics module 704 uses the list ofcandidate media assets instead of media asset database 706 fordetermining a media asset mentioned or discussed in the interaction. Inother embodiments, text analytics module 704 may first use the list ofcandidate media assets for determining a media asset mentioned ordiscussed in the interaction, and, if none of the candidate media assetswere identified, text analytics module 704 may then use the full mediaasset database 706 for determining a media asset mentioned or discussedin the interaction. Either of these approaches may reduce processingpower by reducing the amount of information that the text of theinteraction is compared to.

Once media asset recommendation module 708 has decided to recommend themedia asset to the user, it sends an identifier of the media asset touser media profile 712. User media profile 712 may be associated with,for example, a television subscription, a DVR, an Internet televisionservice, an over-the-top subscription service, a website, a streamingmedia service, a DVD-by-mail service, or any other means through which auser can access media and/or media recommendations. Sending theidentifier of the media asset to user media profile 712 may result in,for example, the identified media asset being added to a list or queueof media assets to be transmitted to the user, the identified mediaasset being added to a list of media assets recommended to the user, abookmark to the identified media asset being created, a link to theidentified media asset being created, and a recording of the identifiedmedia asset being scheduled on a device associated with the user. Theuser may be able to access his user media profile 712 and/or a list ofrecommendations associated with the user media profile 712 using thefirst user device 502 or another user device, such as the first user'ssecond user device 506 of FIG. 5. The user may access user media profile712 over communications network 414. In some embodiments, user mediaprofile 712 is not part of media asset recommendation system 508 asshown. In such embodiments, user media profile 712 may be stored onsocial network server 710 or on a separate server.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an illustrative system 700 showing detailsof the media asset recommendation system 608 from FIG. 6. FIG. 8 alsoshows data flow between various elements of the system 800 forgenerating a media asset recommendation for a user based on anconversation between the user and another person recorded by a userdevice, as shown FIG. 6.

As in system 600 of FIG. 6, system 800 includes a user device 602 havinga microphone 604 and connected to communications network 414. Microphone604 records a conversation between the user and another person (notshown). Microphone 604 can begin recording the conversation when a givensound threshold is detected, when the user's voice is identified, whenthe user indicates that the conversation should be recorded, oraccording to other conditions. Alternatively, microphone 604 can beconfigured to continuously record its environment. System 800 furtherincludes a social network server 810 connected to communications network414; social network server 810 is similar to social network server 710described above. Media asset recommendation system 608 includes an audiomodule 814, a voice recognition module 816, a text analytics module 706,a media asset database 806, a media asset recommendation module 808, anda user media profile 812.

Audio text module 814 receives an audio signal from the microphone 604.Audio to text module 814 may receive the audio signal overcommunications network 414, or in other embodiments, audio to textmodule 824 may be part of user device 602. Audio to text module 814processes the received audio signal to convert it to text using anyknown speech recognition process. Audio to text module 814 sends thetext of the interaction to text analytics module 804.

Text analytics module 804 is similar to text analytics module 704,described above. Text analytics module 804 receives data from mediaasset database 806, which is similar to media asset database 706,described above. Text analytics module 804 determines a media assetdiscussed in the conversation based on the text of the conversationreceived from audio to text module 814. Text analytics module 804communicates an identifier of the identified media asset to media assetrecommendation module 808. In soma embodiments, rather than using textanalytics module 804 to analyze the interaction, an audio analyticsmodel analyzes the audio signal directly to identify discussed mediaassets without converting the audio signal to text. In such embodiments,there may be no text to audio module 814.

In some embodiments, the audio signal of the interaction is analyzed todetermine a tone of the user, the contact, or the interaction relatingto the media asset to gauge the user's and/or contact's interest in themedia asset.

Media asset recommendation module 808 is similar to media assetrecommendation module 708 described above and may use similar factors indetermining whether to recommends particular media asset to the user.Media asset recommendation system 808 may receive social network dataindicative of user interests from social network server 810, which issimilar to social network server 710, described above. A recommendationgenerated by media asset recommendation module 808 is communicated touser media profile 812, which is similar to user media profile 712,except as shown in FIG. 8, user media profile is outside of media assetrecommendation system 608. In other embodiments, user media profile 712may be stored on social network server 810 or in media assetrecommendation system 608. The form of the recommendation can be similarto the recommendation described above.

Audio to text module 814 may transmit the audio signal to voicerecognition module 816 to perform voice recognition. In otherembodiments, voice recognition module 816 may receive the audio signalfrom user device 602 via communications network 414, or voicerecognition module 816 may be part of user device 602. Voice recognitionmodule 816 identifies the user's voice and determines who the otherperson or people with whom the user is speaking. Voice recognitionmodule 816 may be trained based on previous recorded interactions inwhich the contact was identified by the user, or may be trained onspoken conversations over communications network 414 in which the otherspeaker, using another user device, can be identified. For example,voice recognition module may be trained to identify a user's contactsbased on their voices using recorded calls between cellular phones orvoice over IP (VoIP) calls.

If the interaction occurs over communications network 414, rather thanbetween two people in the same location, the one or more other speakerscan be identified based on IP address, telephone number, contactinformation stored on user device 602, or other identifying information,rather than voice recognition module 816.

A user can arrange to receive automated recommendations by, for example,downloading an application or software module onto a user device 300(e.g., user device 502 or 602) that allow interactions taking placeusing the user device 300 or near the user device 300 to be monitored.The application or software module may include a setup process forreceiving instructions from the user indicating how the user would liketo receive recommendations and how to determine when to supply arecommendation. Exemplary setup options are shown in FIGS. 9 through 12.

FIG. 9 is an illustrative display screen 900 of a user device 300showing selectable automated recommendation setup options providingactions to take when recommending a program. The display screen 900 asksthe user what type of action should be taken when the user is engaged ina conversation that discusses a media asset that the user may beinterested in consuming. The user device 300 may allow the user toselect from a list of options 902 including Set a Reminder, Record theProgram, Add it to my Queue, Bookmark the Program, Send me a Link, andAdd it to a List of Recommendation. As shown in FIG. 9, the user hasselected the “Add it to my Queue” option. Some of the recommendationoptions may request additional information, e.g., where to send a link,how to configure the reminder, where in the queue to place the mediaasset, etc., in subsequent display screens or overlays. In someembodiments, the user may select multiple actions to take whenrecommending a program. After the user has selected the desired actions,he selects the “Next” button 904, which presents another set up optionor finalizes the settings.

FIG. 10 is an illustrative display screen 1000 of user device 300showing a selectable automated recommendation setup option for providinga recommendation threshold. User device 300 may present display screen1000 after receiving a selection of the “Next” button in display screen900. The display screen 900 asks the user for a recommendationthreshold, i.e., the number of times the media asset recommendationsystem 508 or 608 should identify a media asset in a user's interactionsbefore recommending it.

The recommendation threshold may be defined as the number of times thatthe media asset was identified within one or more interactions. Forexample, over two interactions, the media asset recommendation system508 or 608 may detect the phrase “Parks, and Recreation” or “Parks andRec” (a common shorthand name for the show “Parks and Recreation”) usedeight times; thus, the media asset recommendation system 508 or 608identified the media asset eight times, and this can be compared to thethreshold input by the user. Media asset recommendation system 508 or608 may check for a set distance between mentions in order to considerthe mentions part of two different detections. The distance may be, forexample, a number of lines of text, a number of words, or a length oftime.

Alternatively, in other embodiments, the number of interactions in whichthe media asset was identified is monitored. For example, the mediaasset recommendation system 508 or 608 may identify three differentinteractions (e.g., interactions with different people, or distinctinteractions including one or more of the same person) in which theupcoming football game between the NEW YORK JETS and the NEW ENGLANDPATRIOTS is mentioned. The media asset recommendation system 508 or 608may determine that an interaction discusses the JETS v. PATRIOTS gamebased on, for example, detection of some combination of “New York”, “NewEngland”, “Jets”, “Patriots”, “Pats” (a common abbreviation for“Patriots”), Sanchez (a player for the NEW YORK JETS), Brady (a playerfor the NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS), etc.

The display screen 1000 can be customized based on a user's previousresponse to setup options. For example, since the user had previouslyindicated in FIG. 9 that he wants a recommended program to be added tohis queue, the user device 300 asks “In general, how many times shouldyou discuss the program before I add it to your queue?”

FIG. 11 is an illustrative display screen 1100 showing a selectableautomated recommendation setup option for providing preferred contactsfor making recommendations. As discussed above in relation to FIG. 7, auser may choose to weight heavily the mention of media assets by certaincontacts, such as close contacts or contacts they know have similartaste in music, movies, television programs, etc. to them. To obtainthis information, user device 300 displays screen 1100 asking the userif there are any contacts it should favor when making recommendations.Favored contacts 1102 are displayed and can be removed from the favoredcontacts list by selecting the “X” next to their names. User device 300can receive additional contacts via the user's selection of a contact indrop down menu 1104. The contacts available in drop down menu 1104 canbe populated by, for example, social network contacts, mobile devicecontacts, email contacts, or messaging contacts. When user device 300receives a selection of a contact in drop down menu 1104, it can displaythat contact in the list of favored contacts 1102 and allow the user toselect a new contact using drop down menu 1104. Once the user hasfinished selecting favored contacts, he selects the “Next” button 1106.

Upon receiving a selection of “Next” button 1106, user device 300 maypresent display screen 1200 of FIG. 12. Display screen 1200 includes aselectable automated recommendation setup option for providing contactsto ignore when making recommendations. As discussed above in relation toFIG. 7, users can weight lightly or ignore certain contacts, such asmore distant contacts or contacts they know have different tastes fromthem. To obtain this information, user device 300 asks the user whetherthere are any contacts it should ignore when making recommendations.Ignored contacts 1202 are displayed and can be removed from the ignoredcontacts list by selecting the “X” next to their names. User device 300can receive additional contacts via the user's selection of a contact indrop down menu 1204. The contacts available in drop down menu 1204 canbe populated by, for example, social network contacts, mobile devicecontacts, email, contacts, or messaging contacts. When user device 300receives a selection of a contact in drop down menu 1204, it can displaythat contact in the list of ignored contacts 1202 and allow the user toselect a new contact using drop down menu 1204. Once the user hasfinished selecting favored contacts, he selects the “Next” button 1206to complete automated recommendations setup.

FIG. 13 is an illustrative display screen showing an automatedrecommendation generated by media asset recommendation system 508 or608. As shown, media asset recommendation system 508 or 608 hasidentified from the user's, interaction that the user may be interestedin watching the live football game between the NEW YORK JETS and the NEWENGLAND PATRIOTS scheduled for Sunday, October 21 at 4:25 pm. Forexample, microphone 604 of user device 602 may have recorded the userand a friend placing bets on the JETS v. PATRIOTS game (e.g., the friendsays “I bet you $50 that Sanchez will throw for more yards than Bradythis Sunday” followed by the user saying “You're on?”). Media assetrecommendation system 608 will identify that the user is interested inthe JETS v. PATRIOTS game, and user device 608, upon receivingidentifying information for this media asset from media assetrecommendation system 608, or upon accessing the recommendation fromuser media profile 812, asks the user whether it should take any of theoptions 1302 available for a live-broadcast program: set a reminder,record the program, bookmark the program, and/or send the user a link tothe program. Additional or alternative options available for livecontent may be included options 1302. The user can select one or more ofthese options and, after he has completed his selection(s), select the“Done” button 1304. User device 608 then processes the selection (s) andtakes actions as required to implement the user's selected action(s).Alternatively, if the user is not interested in watching the JETS v.PATRIOTS game or does not want any of the actions 1302 to be taken, theuser may select the “No thanks” button 1306. In that case, user device608 would not take any of the actions 1302.

FIG. 14 is an illustrative display screen showing a second automatedrecommendation generated by media asset recommendation system 508 or608. As shown, media asset recommendation system 508 or 608 hasidentified from the user's interaction that the user may be interestedin watching BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, a television program which is nolonger regularly broadcast, but is available in non-broadcast forms,such as through over-the-top content providers, on-demand providers,Internet providers, or streaming media providers. For example, a user ofuser device 502 may have a conversation with a friend using user device504 over an instant messaging service, such as GOOGLE TALK. Thefollowing conversation is analyzed by the media asset recommendationsystem:

Friend: Season 6 of Buffy is getting really exciting

User: I don't think that I made it that far—I stopped watching afterseason 5

Friend: You missed out on the best part of the series!

User: I should really go back and watch it one of these days.

Based on this interaction, media asset recommendation system 508 willidentify that the user is interested in watching season 6 of BUFFY THEVAMPIRE SLAYER and add this as a recommendation. Upon receivinginformation identifying BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER Season 6 from mediaasset recommendation system 508, or upon accessing user media profile712, user device 502 or 506 asks the user whether it should take any ofthe options 1402 available for an on-demand program: add the firstseason of the program to the user's queue, bookmark the program, or sendthe user a link to the program. Additional or alternative optionsavailable for on-demand content may be included in options 1402. Theuser can select one or more of these options and, after he has completedhis selection (s), select the “Done” button 1404. User device 300 thenprocesses the selection (s) and takes actions as required to implementthe user's selected action(s). Alternatively, if the user is notinterested in watching BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER or does not want any ofthe actions 1402 to be taken, the user may select the “No, thanks”button 1406. In that case, user device 502 or 506 would not take any ofthe actions 1402.

FIG. 15 shows an illustrative process for automatically generating amedia asset recommendation based on a user's interaction. First, mediaasset recommendation system 508 or 608 processes verbal data receivedduring an interaction, e.g., the audio signal recorded during a user'sinteraction, as described in relation to FIGS. 6 and 8 (step 1502).Media asset recommendation system 608, upon receiving the audio of auser's interaction, may convert the audio to text, as described inrelation to FIG. 8. Media asset recommendation system 508 or 608analyzes the verbal interaction (step 1504). Based on the analysis,media asset recommendation system 508 or 608 identities a media assetthat was referred to during the interaction (step 1506). The identifiedmedia asset is added to a list of media assets associated with the user,such as list of recommendations in user media profile 712 or 812 (step1508). Media asset recommendation system 508 or 608 or user mediaprofile 712 or 812 then transmits data identifying at least one mediaasset in the list of recommended media assets to a user deviceassociated with the user (step 1510).

FIG. 16 shows an illustrative process for automatically generating amedia asset recommendations based on a user's interaction and varioususer input and interest. First, media asset recommendation system 508 or608 receives the text of a user's interaction, as described in relationto FIGS. 5 and 7, or the audio of a user's interaction, as described inrelation to FIGS. 6 and 8 (step 1602). Based on the received data, mediaasset recommendation system 508 or 608 identifies one or more of theuser's contacts involved as described in relation to FIG. 7 or 8 (step1604). Based on the identity of the contact, media asset recommendationsystem 508 or 608 determines whether the media assets mentioned by thecontact should be ignored, as described, for example, in relation toFIG. 12 (decision 1606). If the contact is to be ignored, media assetrecommendation system 508 or 608 continues monitoring a user'sinteractions or receiving data from monitored conversations.

If the contact is not to be ignored, media asset recommendation system508 or 608 accesses the interests of the user and the contact, forexample from social network server 710 or 810 (step 1608) and determinesa level of interest similarity based on the identified interests (step1610), as described in relation to FIG. 7. Media asset recommendationsystem 508 or 608 also compares the data from the interaction (text oraudio) to data from a media asset database, e.g., by using acomputerized predictive model trained with data from the media assetdatabase, as described in relation to FIG. 7 (step 1612). Based on thiscomparison, media asset recommendation system 508 or 608 identifies amedia asset that was mentioned in the interaction (step 1614). Mediaasset recommendation system 508 or 608 analyzes the text or audio of theinteraction to determine the user's interest in the media asset (step1616).

Based on the analysis of the user's interest in the media asset, mediaasset recommendation system 508 or 608 determines whether the user haslow or no interest (decision 1618). If the user has little interest inthe media asset, media asset recommendation system 508 or 608 continuesmonitoring a user's interactions or receiving data from monitoredconversations. If the user does not have low or no interest in the mediaasset, media asset recommendation system 508 or 608 determines whetherthe user has a high interest in the media asset (decision 1620). If theuser has a high interest in the media assets, media asset recommendationsystem 508 or 608 may immediately recommend the media asset. To do this,media asset recommendation system 508 or 608 accesses the user'srecommendation preferences received as described in FIG. 9 (step 1624).Based on the user's recommendation preferences, media assetrecommendation system 508 or 608 takes the debited action forrecommending the media asset (step 1626).

If the user does not have a high interest in the program (e.g., the userhas a moderate interest in the program, or the level of interest was notdetermined), media asset recommendation system 508 or 608 determineswhether to recommend the program based on the interest similaritydetermined in step 1610 and the previous identifications of the mediaasset (decision 1622). For example, media asset recommendation system508 or 608 may compare the number of times the media asset wasidentified to a threshold received from the user as described inrelation to FIG. 10. If the asset recommendation system 508 or 608determines to recommend in step 1622, media asset recommendation system508 or 608 accesses the user preferences and takes the desired actionfor recommending the media asset based on the user's recommendationpreferences (steps 1624 and 1626). Otherwise, media asset recommendationsystem 508 or 608 continues monitoring a user's interactions orreceiving data from monitored conversations.

It should be understood that the above steps of the flow diagrams ofFIGS. 15 and 16 may be executed or performed in any order or sequencenot limited to the order and sequence shown and described in thefigures. Also, some of the above steps of the flow diagrams of FIGS. 15and 16 may be executed of performed substantially simultaneously whereappropriate or in parallel to reduce latency and processing times.

The above-described embodiments of the present disclosure are presentedfor purposes of illustration and not of limitation, and the presentdisclosure is limited only by the claims which follow.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for retrieving a recommendation weightcorresponding to a person a user is interacting with to determinewhether to recommend a media asset to the user, the method comprising:identifying, by control circuitry, data from an interaction between auser and a person with whom the user is interacting; comparing the datawith metadata describing a plurality of media assets; determining, basedon identifying from the comparing a match between the data and themetadata, a media asset of the plurality of media assets referred toduring the interaction; retrieving preferences for the user; retrievingpreferences for the person; comparing the preferences for the user withthe preferences for the person to determine whether the preferences forthe user correspond to the preferences for the person; and based ondetermining that the preferences for the user correspond to thepreferences for the person, adding the identified media asset to arecommended set of media assets for the user.
 2. The method of claim 1,further comprising: determining, based on an analysis of the data, alevel of interest in the identified media asset of at least one of theuser and the person; determining whether the level of interest exceeds athreshold level of interest; and based on determining that the level ofinterest exceeds the threshold level of interest, adding the identifiedmedia asset to the recommended set of media assets for the user.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: monitoring a number of times thatthe identified media asset was identified within the data; comparing thenumber of times that the identified media asset was identified to athreshold number; and in response to determining, based on the comparingof the number of times that the identified media asset was identified tothe threshold number, that the number of times the identified mediaasset was identified exceeds the threshold number, adding the identifiedmedia asset to the set of recommended media assets for the user.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: monitoring a number ofinteractions in which the identified media asset was identified;comparing the number of interactions in which the identified media assetwas identified to a threshold number; and in response to determining,based on the comparing of the number of interactions in which theidentified media asset was identified to the threshold number, that thenumber of interactions in which the identified media asset wasidentified exceeds the threshold number, adding the identified mediaasset to the recommended set of media assets for the user.
 5. The methodof claim 1, further comprising: determining a plurality of candidatemedia assets based on a profile associated with at least one of the userand the person; and identifying, from the determined set of candidatemedia assets, a media asset referred to during the interaction by atleast one of the user and the person with whom the user is interacting.6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a user inputcorresponding to the person; modifying, based on the received userinput, the preferences for the person; and storing the modifiedpreferences in a database of friends of the user.
 7. The method of claim6, further comprising: determining whether the user input indicatesfavoring the person; and based on determining that the user inputindicates that the user input indicates favoring the person, modifyingthe preferences for the person to correspond with the preferences forthe user.
 8. The method of claim 6, further comprising: determiningwhether the user input indicates favoring the person; and based ondetermining that the user input indicates that the user input does notindicate favoring the person, modifying the preferences for the personto not correspond with the preferences for the user.
 9. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising creating a link to the identified mediaasset.
 10. The method of claim 1, further comprising further comprisingscheduling a recording of the identified media asset on a deviceassociated with the user.
 11. A system for retrieving a recommendationweight corresponding to a person a user is interacting with to determinewhether to recommend a media asset to the user, the system comprising:control circuitry configured to: identify, by control circuitry, datafrom an interaction between a user and a person with whom the user isinteracting; compare the data with metadata describing a plurality ofmedia assets; determine, based on identifying from the comparing a matchbetween the data and the metadata, a media asset of the plurality ofmedia assets referred to during the interaction; retrieve preferencesfor the user; retrieve preferences for the person; compare thepreferences for the user with the preferences for the person todetermine whether the preferences for the user correspond to thepreferences for the person; and based on determining that thepreferences for the user correspond to the preferences for the person,add the identified media asset to a recommended set of media assets forthe user.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry isfurther configured to: determine, based on an analysis of the data, alevel of interest in the identified media asset of at least one of theuser and the person; determine whether the level of interest exceeds athreshold level of interest; and based on determining that the level ofinterest exceeds the threshold level of interest, add the identifiedmedia asset to the recommended set of media assets for the user.
 13. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is further configuredto: monitor a number of times that the identified media asset wasidentified within the data; compare the number of times that theidentified media asset was identified to a threshold number; and inresponse to determining, based on the comparing of the number of timesthat the identified media asset was identified to the threshold number,that the number of times the identified media asset was identifiedexceeds the threshold number, add the identified media asset to the setof recommended media assets for the user.
 14. The system of claim 11,wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: monitor a numberof interactions in which the identified media asset was identified;compare the number of interactions in which the identified media assetwas identified to a threshold number; and in response to determining,based on the comparing of the number of interactions in which theidentified media asset was identified to the threshold number, that thenumber of interactions in which the identified media asset wasidentified exceeds the threshold number, add the identified media assetto the recommended set of media assets for the user.
 15. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:determine a plurality of candidate media assets based on a profileassociated with at least one of the user and the person; and identify,from the determined set of candidate media assets, a media assetreferred to during the interaction by at least one of the user and theperson with whom the user is interacting.
 16. The system of claim 11,wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: receive a userinput corresponding to the person; modify, based on the received userinput, the preferences for the person; and store the modifiedpreferences in a database of friends of the user.
 17. The system ofclaim 16, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:determine whether the user input indicates favoring the person; andbased on determining that the user input indicates that the user inputindicates favoring the person, modify the preferences for the person tocorrespond with the preferences for the user.
 18. The system of claim16, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: determinewhether the user input indicates favoring the person; and based ondetermining that the user input indicates that the user input does notindicate favoring the person, modify the preferences for the person tonot correspond with the preferences for the user.
 19. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to createa link to the identified media asset.
 20. The system of claim 11,wherein the control circuitry is further configured to schedule arecording of the identified media asset on a device associated with theuser.